AAP Richmond Center Investigators

J. Michael Collaco, MD, MBA, MPH, FAAP Dr. Collaco is an Assistant Professor and practicing pediatric pulmonologist in the Eudowood Division of Pediatric Respiratory Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on environmental modifiers of pediatric respiratory diseases, including SHS. Dr. Collaco and his collaborator, Drs. Sharon McGrath-Morrow have been funded by the Johns Hopkins University Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute Center of Excellence to study the effects of SHS in infants born prematurely with lung disease and the effects of electronic cigarettes on children.

Mark Gottlieb, JD Mark Gottlieb is a consultant for the AAP Richmond Center. He previously conducted a project through the Center on legal and regulatory issues of tobacco control, which provided vital information for the development and implementation of new policies and laws to reduce children's exposure to SHS in multiple settings. Mr. Gottlieb is the Executive Director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. The Institute's nine attorneys conduct legal research and policy analysis around the intersection of law and public health. For the past 20 years, he has focused his research on legal approaches to reduce the harm caused by tobacco industry products. Mr. Gottlieb consults with the AAP Richmond Center on the law and policy implications of the Center's research projects within the field of tobacco control.

Judith Groner, MD, FAAP Dr. Groner is the PI for the Vascular Endothelial Status project for the AAP Richmond Center. Dr. Groner is a practicing pediatrician, a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, and an attending physician in the Primary Care Network at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She is also the Director of the Academic General Pediatrics Fellowship Program at Nationwide Children's. Dr. Groner's research focuses on SHS exposure during childhood as a risk factor for vascular changes which can lead to cardiovascular disease during adulthood. Her previous funding has been through the National Institutes of Health, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, and the American Lung Association, among others. Dr. Groner is also active at her institution in pediatric residency training in protecting children from SHS and decreasing parental tobacco use. Dr. Groner is on the Executive Committee of the AAP Section on Tobacco Control and serves as the Chair-Elect and Education Chair for the Section.

Jonathan Klein, MD, MPH, FAAP Dr. Klein is Associate Executive Director of the AAP, and founding Director of the AAP Richmond Center. Dr. Klein is an expert in adolescent medicine and child and adolescent health services research. His research addresses tobacco prevention and control, access and quality of care, obesity screening in primary care, and other child and adolescent preventive services.

Dr. Klein attended Brandeis University, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his residency in pediatrics and a chief residency at the Boston Floating Hospital, New England Medical Center, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the University of Rochester faculty in 1992 where he served as Associate Chair for Community and Government Affairs in the Department of Pediatrics and as Professor of Pediatrics, Preventive and Community Medicine, and Family Medicine. He became Associate Executive Director of the AAP in September 2009.

Sharon McGrath-Morrow, MD, MBA, FAAPDr. Sharon McGrath-Morrow is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with a joint appointment in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. McGrath-Morrow is a pediatric pulmonologist and clinician scientist who runs a translational laboratory modeling neonatal lung injury. Her research interests include understanding the neonatal immune response to acute lung injury, respiratory outcomes in preterm infants with chronic lung disease and the impact of secondhand and thirdhand smoke on postnatal lung growth and adult lung function. Her work is funded by National Institutes of Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics Julius B. Richmond Center. She is also the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Pulmonary Fellowship Director.

Robert McMillen, PhD Dr. McMillen is the PI of the Data and Datasets for the AAP Richmond Center. Dr. McMillen's research applies computer-assisted telephone interview methods as well as Web- and school-based survey methods to measure the social climate surrounding health issues. The annual Social Climate Survey is one product of this research, and is an ongoing collaboration between the Mississippi State Social Science Research Center and the AAP Richmond Center. In recognition of his research contributions, he was awarded the 2006 Prevention of Cancer in Mississippi Award by the Mississippi Partnership of Comprehensive Cancer Control. His research has been supported by the Centers for Disease Control, the Mississippi State Department of Health, The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, the American Cancer Society, and the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program. Dr. McMillen is an Associate Professor with a joint appointment with the Social Science Research Center and the Department of Psychology at Mississippi State University.

Ana Rule, PhD Dr. Rule is a research scientist and faculty member at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she directs the Secondhand Smoke Exposure Assessment Laboratory. Throughout her research career she has focused on methods and measurements for assessing human exposure to contaminants in the community and work environments as a basis for developing strategies for prevention. Dr. Rule has been involved in several studies linking human exposure to nicotine, PAHs, metals, bioaerosols, and ambient air pollution through multiple environmental media. These large-scale projects complement laboratory-based studies where controlled experiments are used to better investigate and refine sampling methods. Dr. Rule’s current research includes community-based exposure assessment, the role of exposure to metals, exposure and effects from mobile source related air pollution, methods for measuring bioaerosols, and the development and evaluation of air sampling equipment. Dr. Rule is a Co-PI on the AAP Richmond Center Measurement Core project.

Susanne Tanski, MD, MPH, FAAP Dr. Tanski is the PI of the Messaging project for the AAP Richmond Center. Dr. Tanski is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a practicing pediatrician at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Working within the Cancer Risk Behaviors Group at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth, her current research endeavors focus on visual media influences on adolescent smoking and drinking, and communication between pediatric clinicians and parents regarding SHS exposure of children. Dr. Tanski currently chairs the AAP Tobacco Consortium, a national group of researchers who take a family-centered approach to tobacco control issues that affect children. Previously, she has been involved in a number of epidemiologic studies examining parents' patterns of smoking and cessation attempts, parents' rules against smoking in homes and vehicles, and parents' attitudes towards pediatric practitioners' advice and assistance with quit attempts.

Karen Wilson, MD, MPH, FAAP Dr. Wilson is an Associate Professor and Section Head of Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, CO. Dr. Wilson received her undergraduate degree at St. Lawrence University, and her Master's in Public Health and MD at the University of Rochester. Dr. Wilson's research interests include the impact of secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) on children, and how best to help reduce their exposure. She also studies hospitalizations for respiratory illness, and the impact of SHS on inflammatory markers and development of asthma in children hospitalized for bronchiolitis. She has an R01 from the National Cancer Institute to study an inpatient parent cessation and exposure reduction intervention, and she is PI of the AAP Richmond Center Respiratory Illness and Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Kids (RISSK) project which studies biomarkers of inflammation in smoke-exposed children, and a Co-PI on the AAP Richmond Center Measurement Core project. Dr. Wilson is the Chair of the AAP Section on Tobacco Control, a member of the Executive Committee of the Pediatric Research in Inpatient Settings network, and the Research Chair of the Academic Pediatric Association.

Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH, FAAP Dr. Winickoff is a practicing pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He has training and experience in health services research, medical ethics, neurobiology, statistics, and behavioral theory. Dr. Winickoff has drafted key tobacco control policy for the AAP, the American Medical Association, and the American Pediatric Association. He has served as a scientific advisor to the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, Indiana Tobacco Control Program, and the US Surgeon General through the Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health. The national program he developed out of his research through the AAP Pediatric Research in Office Settings program is known as CEASE — Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure — and program materials are available for free at www.ceasetobacco.org.